Can endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration offer clinical benefit for tumors of the ampulla of vater? -an initial study.

Objective: No previous studies have described endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) only for intra-ampullary lesions of the papilla of Vater. We aimed to examine whether EUS-FNA can be used to diagnose such lesions.

Methods: This study included a subset of 10 consecutive patients in whom EUS-FNA targeted the ampulla of Vater. All the patients underwent biopsy and/or brushing cytology under endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) prior to EUS-FNA. The final diagnosis was based on pathological examinations of specimens obtained by surgical resection or clinical follow-up more than 1 year in case of evidence of benign lesions.

Results: Tissues from the ampulla of Vater could be obtained by EUS-FNA for all 10 patients. The final diagnosis was papillitis (n = 7) and intra-ampullary carcinoma (n = 3). Carcinoma of the ampulla of Vater showed neither exposure on the duodenal mucosal surface nor invasion to the pancreas. The diagnostic accuracy of surface biopsy with duodenoscopy, and intra-ampullary biopsy and/or brush cytology with ERCP and/or intra-ampullary biopsy after endoscopic sphincterotomy (EST) in distinguishing between benign and malignancy was 70%. The diagnostic accuracy of EUS-FNA was 100%. No complications associated with EUS-FNA were encountered in this study.

Conclusion: EUS-FNA for ampulla of Vater may be safely and accurately performed, and should be considered as a diagnostic modality before EST.